Flames Claim Big South Men Cross Country Crown

Oct 28

Rock Hill, S.C. - The Liberty Flames took home their eighth-straight Big South Men's Cross Country Championships as it won the 2012 Big South Cross Country Men's Championship presented by UCS and Musco Lighting on the campus Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. on Saturday morning. High Point's Jacob Smith claimed the men's individual title on the 8K course to take home the men's Runner of the Year honor.

The Liberty men posted 28 points, followed by High Point (49) and Campbell (92). In fourth-place was VMI with 100 points and UNC Asheville closed the top five 158 points. Coastal Carolina and Winthrop finished for sixth and seventh respectively with tallies of 178 and 185 points. Radford finished eighth with 192 points followed by Longwood (214) and Gardner-Webb (320). Charleston Southern's 347 points was good for 11th, while Presbyterian College rounded the list for the men with 365 points.

The Panthers' Smith finished the course with a time of 24:35 followed by David Ricksecker of Liberty who clocked in at 24:39. Liberty's Caleb Edmonds' time of 24:40 was good for third and in fourth was N'Getich Kipchirchir of Liberty with a time of 24:44. Patrick Crawford crossed the line in 24:52 to earn fifth place and in sixth was Morgan Timiney of Campbell with a time of 25:00. Liberty's Will Templeton finished the course in 25:10 to claim seventh, ahead of Jeff LaCoste who posted a time of 25:17. Andrey Dmitriev of VMI (25:18) and Joseph Keitt from Coastal Carolina (25:19) rounded out the All-Conference athletes for the men.

Liberty's Brant Tolsma was named the the Coach of the Year, with Kipchirchir was earning the Men's Scholar-Athlete of the Year.

Cabel Willis of VMI was tabbed the Big South's Men's Scholar-Athlete of the Year.